Patch your fixtures

This guide takes a rig from nothing to ready for looks. Every step happens in the Rig view (⌥3) and Settings ▸ Output. The setup steps strip along the top of a new show follows the same order.

You'll need, for each fixture:

• its make, model and DMX mode (the number of channels it is set to)
• its universe and start address, or the freedom to choose them
• where it hangs

1. Set up the universes

In Settings ▸ Output, a new show has two universes, both off. For each DMX line you have:

1. Switch on Art-Net or sACN, whichever your node speaks.
2. Set the Art-Net universe or sACN universe to what the node expects.
3. Leave Send to on everyone unless you know the node's address.
4. Choose the output adapter your rig is on, if the Mac also has Wi-Fi or anything else connected.

Your node should show up under Art-Net nodes. If it doesn't, see Nothing lights up.

2. Add the fixtures

In the Rig view, press + add fixture…:

1. type: the fixture definition. Search the library if it isn't listed. Simple fixtures can use a built-in generic (dimmer, RGB par, RGBW par, moving head, hazer) if their channels are in that order.
2. how many: a row of identical fixtures, addressed one after another.
3. universe and start at. It offers the next free address.
4. add.

From a GDTF or MVR file

Most manufacturers publish GDTF definitions. Use import to add a .gdtf file, or fetch one from GDTF Share in the library. If the rig was drawn in a plotting program that exports MVR, import the .mvr instead: it brings every fixture with its address, position and definition in one go.

3. Check the addresses

• Click a fixture's Addr to type its start address, when the rig is already addressed on the truss.
• Use re-address to pack them, when you are setting the addresses yourself. in rigging order numbers them truss by truss, left to right, which is easy to walk with a DMX address screen.
• Fix any address conflict warning before going further.

4. Find each fixture on the truss

Go live (the offline button in the top bar), then hold a row's magnifier until its ring fills. That fixture goes to full white. If a different fixture lights, or none does, the address or the mode on the fixture doesn't match the patch.

For a fixture that doesn't respond at all, try its first channel in the channel check: hold it at 255 and see whether anything moves.

5. Put them where they hang

In the plan, drag each fixture to where it hangs. It helps to add the structures first: + structure… in the Stage section adds a truss bar, a leg, a riser or a screen. With snap on, a fixture dropped near a bar clamps onto it and travels with it.

• Switch to Front to set hang heights.
• Use Turn, or the inspector's Mount, for fixtures hung on their side or upside down.
• Add a + musician… or two, so the stage view has people to light and moving heads have something to aim at.

6. Make the groups

Looks point at groups, not fixtures, so the groups decide what you can light on its own. Press ⟳ auto-groups for one group per fixture type and one per truss. Then:

• Rename groups to what you'll call them from the desk: "Back wash", "Floor strips".
• Make your own: select fixtures on the plan and press ⊕ group from N.
• Check the chase order. The heads' order in a group is the order chases run in. ⇄ reverses a bar hung the other way round.

See Groups.

7. Aim the moving heads

For each moving head, set a base aim in the inspector's Aim. Looks move around it. The quickest way is Aim at: select the heads, pick a musician or a structure, and press store as base aim.

Check them live. If a head moves the wrong way, fix it in Calibration (pan runs backwards, tilt runs backwards, hung on its side), not in the looks. Set pan limits and tilt limits to keep a head off the audience or out of the truss.

8. Pixel bars

A multi-pixel fixture needs to know where its pixels are, for the pixel-row and pixel-column spreads. Most GDTF files carry this. For one that doesn't, use Pixel layout under Profiles: a strip, a grid (with serpentine for a snake-wired string) or a ring, and the spacing.

9. Keep the patch for next time

Shows save themselves, but a patched rig with no looks is a good starting point for the next show in the same venue. save as… in the project menu saves a copy under a new name and switches to it. Save the patched show as, say, "Venue rig", then save as… again under the show's own name before building looks. The rig copy stays as it was.

Next: build your first look.